Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchLee McIntyre, "The Scientific Attitude: Defending Science from Denial, Fraud, and Pseudoscience" (MIT Press, 2019)
Episode 108
What can explain the success of science as an endeavor for getting closer to truth? Does science simply represent a successful methodology, or is it …
6 years ago
Henry M. Cowles, "The Scientific Method: An Evolution of Thinking from Darwin to Dewey" (Harvard UP, 2020)
Episode 251
The idea of a single scientific method, shared across specialties and teachable to ten-year-olds, is just over a hundred years old. For centuries pri…
6 years ago
Controlling the Scientific Narrative: Randomized Controlled Trials and The Manipulation of “Control”
Episode 16
Modern science uses the “randomized controlled trial”—whereby people are randomly allocated either the drug or a placebo—as a gold standard to find o…
6 years ago
Brian Greene, "Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe" (Random House, 2020)
Episode 20
Brian Greene is a Professor of Mathematics and Physics at Columbia University in the City of New York, where he is the Director of the Institute for …
6 years ago
A. M. Barton and W. S. Keeton, "Ecology and Recovery of Eastern Old-Growth Forests" (Island Press, 2018)
Episode 51
Old-growth forests captivate and inspire us. Walking through them can transport us to a time before human domination of the natural world. This is es…
6 years, 1 month ago
Leslie M. Harris, "Slavery and the University: Histories and Legacies" (U Georgia Press, 2019)
Episode 193
Slavery and the University: Histories and Legacies (University of Georgia Press, 2019), edited by Leslie M. Harris, James T. Campbell, and Alfred L. …
6 years, 2 months ago
Wade Roush, "Extraterrestrials" (MIT Press, 2020)
Episode 19
Everything we know about how planets form and how life arises suggests that human civilization on Earth should not be unique. We ought to see abundan…
6 years, 2 months ago
Jodi Hilty, "Corridor Ecology: Linking Landscapes for Biodiversity Conservation and Climate Adaptation" (Island Press, 2019)
Episode 248
In Corridor Ecology: Linking Landscapes for Biodiversity Conservation and Climate Adaptation, 2nd Edition (Island Press, 2019), Dr. Jodi Hilty and he…
6 years, 2 months ago
Wenfei Tong, "Bird Love: The Family Life of Birds" (Princeton UP, 2020)
Episode 247
Wenfei Tong's Bird Love: The Family Life of Birds (Princeton University Press, 2020) looks at the extraordinary range of mating systems in the avian …
6 years, 2 months ago
Ray Dorsey, "Ending Parkinson's Disease: A Prescription for Action" (Public Affairs, 2020)
Episode 18
Brain diseases are now the world's leading source of disability. The fastest growing of these is Parkinson's: the number of impacted patients has dou…
6 years, 2 months ago